As other professional sports leagues planned to tiptoe ahead with quarantined lockdowns, the NFL went boldly and cleverly ahead with a virtual draft so innovative and well received that even strident critics reluctantly applauded it.
The basement of commissioner Roger Goodell’s New York home served as the nerve center for the April event, projecting a sense of calm and confidence as if the world briefly had tilted back onto its axis.
Goodell’s increasingly casual attire over the three days reflected that — from sports coat to sweater to quarter-zip to T-shirt — until he finally plopped into his favorite leather recliner and ate fistfuls of M&Ms. Everything was going to be OK.
